Russian collaboration during the Second World War. Russian collaboration during the Second World War: Myths and realities WWII collaboration

During the Great Patriotic War, there were Soviet citizens who were on the German side - in the ranks of the Wehrmacht, SS, paramilitary and police forces. And today there are admirers of these people who betrayed their country. Many of them like to talk about the 2 million Russians who fought against the USSR on the side of Germany for ideological reasons - they say, they hated the damned Bolshevik commissars so much. There is also talk of a “second civil war.” In fact, the basis of collaboration was not at all the ideological denial of Soviet power. Yes, there were many convinced opponents of the communists, but they did not define the face of “Russian” collaboration

FAILURES FROM THE BEGINNING

To begin with, the most plausible figure seems to be 1.2 million people. She is called by the historian S.I. Drobyazko, who studied the data in most detail. Among them there were many people from Central Asia, the Baltic states, the Caucasus and Ukraine. The number of Russians proper is estimated at approximately 400 thousand.

From the very beginning, Russian units showed themselves to be poor helpers. Many very quickly realized both their own real situation as slaves and the wrongness and hopelessness of their cause. Moreover, this realization came even before Stalingrad, when the USSR stood on the edge of the abyss. In this regard, the fate of the so-called Russian National People's Army (RNNA) is very indicative. This “army” was formed on the initiative of several White emigrants (S.N. Ivanov, K.G. Kromiadi, etc.), who powdered the brains of Soviet prisoners with stories about the new Russian state that would arise during the struggle against the Bolsheviks and Jewry. The number of participants in the formation reached 4 thousand, and the Germans pinned certain hopes on it. The most important task of the RNNA was assigned in the spring of 1942: it was deployed against Soviet units of the 4th Airborne Corps and the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps located in the German rear in the area of ​​Vyazma and Dorogobuzh.

It was assumed that collaborators dressed in Soviet uniforms would capture Lieutenant General P.A. Belov and will try to persuade the Red Army soldiers to surrender. However, the opposite happened: 100 RNNA fighters went over to the Soviet side. After this, the “army” was aimed at fighting the partisans. The struggle was sluggish, and the People's Army en masse went over to the side of those with whom they were supposed to fight. So, only on August 6–15, 1942, 200 officers and soldiers of the RNNA ran over to the partisans (with them in their hands). And in October, a major conflict occurred between the RNNA and the German command, which intended to clearly show who was the master and who was the servant. From the very beginning of the existence of the RNNA, they wore Soviet uniforms, but with shoulder straps and white-blue-red cockades. Now the order was given to change into German uniform. In addition, the people's army was to be divided into battalions. The personnel were indignant and refused to obey, as a result they had to use SS troops to bring some sense into the presumptuous slaves. The weapons were taken from the RNNA fighters, but then, however, they were returned, after which 300 people immediately went over to the partisans. Further - more: in November, another 600 people followed the example of defectors. In the end, the Germans' patience ran out, the RNNA was disbanded, and its units were transferred to France.

MARCH OF DECOVERERS

In April 1943, the Nazis sought to raise the morale of their assistants and immediately enlisted all Russians in the Vlasov Russian Liberation Army (ROA). In this way they tried to convince them that they were something united. The Germans did this not out of generosity, but because a mass exodus began: in the same year, 1943, 14 thousand people fled to the partisans.

This was already a real decomposition, and the Germans decided to remove the “helpers” from the Eastern Front out of harm’s way. Relatively reliable units were sent to France, Holland, Belgium and the Balkans, while unreliable ones were simply disbanded. This dealt a rather powerful blow to the psyche of the defectors, who finally realized the insignificance of their real status. Many of them chose to flee to the partisans rather than go to the West.

In this regard, the fate of the 1st Russian national SS brigade “Druzhina” is most indicative. It was created on the basis of the Fighting Union of Russian Nationalists, which was headed by Soviet Colonel V.V. Gil (who took the pseudonym Rodionov). First, the 1st Russian national SS detachment (Druzhina No. 1) arose; after merging with Druzhina No. 2, the formation became known as the 1st Russian national SS regiment. And after strengthening at the expense of local residents and prisoners, the SS brigade itself was formed in May 1943. At the brigade headquarters there was a German headquarters, headed by SS Hauptsturmführer Rosner. It is clear that there could be no talk of any independence. The number of the brigade was 3 thousand people. The “vigilantes” specialized in fighting partisans.

Thus, the brigade took part in anti-partisan operations in the Begoml-Lepel area. There, the “Russian” SS men were taught a strong lesson by the partisans, which had a good educational effect. Many people thought about the transition, and the partisans immediately took advantage of these sentiments. In August 1943, Gil-Rodionov established contact with the command of the Zheleznyak partisan brigade. He and the fighters of the SS brigade were promised an amnesty if the “vigilantes” went over to the side of the partisans. The proposal was readily accepted, parts of the brigade destroyed the German headquarters, and at the same time those officers who were considered unreliable. Next, the former SS men attacked the nearest German garrisons.

Almost the entire composition of the unit, which became known as the 1st anti-fascist partisan brigade, went over to the partisans. Vladimir Gil was awarded the Order of the Red Star and restored to his previous rank. The newly minted partisans performed very well in battle. So, they defeated the German garrisons in Ilya, Obodovtsy and Vileika. In April 1944, the Nazis undertook a serious operation to defeat the partisans of the Polotsk-Lepel zone. The brigade was forced to break through the German blockade; during this breakthrough, Gil received serious injuries from which he died.

DESERTER MOVEMENT

The Vlasov army, however, also did not want to fight. Vlasov stubbornly tried to convince the German command that he needed more time to prepare. With difficulty it was possible to force the 1st Division S.K. Bunyachenko advance to the Oder Front. There, on April 13, she took part in the attack of Soviet troops, and the Vlasovites did not like such participation in the fight against Bolshevism. They beat them seriously, for real. Then Bunyachenko, without any hesitation, took his formation to the Czech Republic to unite with other Vlasov units.

Let us leave ideological anti-communists out of the picture for now and draw the obvious conclusion. For the most part, the so-called Vlasovites were deserters rather than anti-communists. They simply did not have the will to somehow resist the huge military-political machine of the Third Reich. In a number of cases, the lack of will was facilitated by resentment against the Soviet regime, under which many people were actually offended. However, many of those offended resisted the fascist invaders to the end, fearing neither deprivation nor death. So the factor of resentment, not to mention ideology, did not play a determining role.

It is interesting to compare all this with the First World War. Then those who disagreed with the authorities did not run over to the Germans or Austrians, did not desert. They carried out persistent (and rather risky) revolutionary work in the tsarist army. The Bolsheviks were famous for their organization and courage, they advocated the overthrow of all imperialist governments, but they did not take the side of the Germans. The Bolsheviks were always in favor of holding the front and were categorically against desertion. And they never supported the deserter’s call to “Put the bayonet in the ground and go squeeze your woman.”

The Bolsheviks continued to fight, fraternizing with the Germans, but not surrendering to them, agitating the same Germans and preparing for the decisive revolutionary assault. The resilience of the Bolsheviks was recognized by many army commanders, for example, the commander of the Northern Front, General V.A. Cheremisov. He was so shocked by the strength of the Bolsheviks that he even financed their newspaper “Our Way”. And not only he, many other military leaders also financed the Bolshevik press. This, by the way, relates to the question of where the Bolsheviks got their money from. And, of course, here we can and should recall the Battle of Moonsund, during which the Bolsheviks took control of the resistance to the Germans.

It’s a completely different matter – the “helpers” of the Germans. They showed themselves to be very, very weak. Their irretrievable losses amounted to 8.5 thousand people, of which 8 thousand were missing. In essence, we were talking about deserters and defectors. As a result, the Germans disbanded many of these units, throwing them into fortification work. When the Allies landed on the Atlantic coast, many of the Easterners fled, others surrendered, and others even rebelled, killing their superiors. And right at the end they tried to use the “assistants” to form the Russian Liberation Army.

LOKOTSKAYA REPUBLIC: VAIN PR

Today's fans of collaboration have a special pride - the Lokot district, loudly called a republic. During the war, the Germans allowed the creation of an autonomous police formation on the territory of several districts of the Oryol and Kursk regions - for reasons that will be discussed below. This education was headed by B.V. Kaminsky, leader of the so-called People's Socialist Party of Russia "Viking" (at first the burgomaster was K.P. Voskoboynik, who was killed by partisans). Nothing to say, a good name for a Russian nationalist party! In its manifesto we read: “Our party is a national party. She remembers and appreciates the best traditions of the Russian people. She knows that the Viking knights, relying on the Russian people, created the Russian state in hoary antiquity.” It is very significant that for these collaborators, the Russian state is being built by non-Russian Vikings who only rely on the Russian people! By the way, the newly-minted “Viking” Nazis initially did not allow the creation of a party; the go-ahead was given only in 1943. This is “independence”.

Nowadays Lokot self-government is regularly promoted, trying to present it as an alternative to communism and Stalinism. A lot of molasses is being poured out about the economic prosperity that the local collaborators managed to achieve after the abolition of the hated collective farm system. They say that the peasants had plenty of land, livestock and poultry. At the same time, it is completely incomprehensible what kind of prosperity we can talk about in the conditions of a very difficult war, when the overwhelming majority of the adult male population is under arms. Moreover, powerful requisitions were imposed on the local population: thousands of heads of livestock were stolen for the needs of the German “liberator” army.

RONA field commanders

Kaminsky created the Russian Liberation People's Army (RONA), the number of which reached 20 thousand. However, it did not act very effectively, although it was vicious towards captured partisans and those suspected of complicity. Here the administrative and legal talents of the Kamino residents also manifested themselves, drawing up a special anti-partisan code of 150 articles, each of which carried the death penalty. They served quite productively as scouts, guiding German punitive forces against the partisans. However, RONA also had enough defectors: only in the winter of 1942–1943, thousands of Kaminans went over to the side of the partisans, having previously destroyed German garrisons and warehouses.

Kaminsky and his henchmen controlled only part of their autonomy, the population of which was 0.5 million people. “Looking at the map, it is not difficult to see that the territories around the Bryansk-Navlya-Lgov and Bryansk-Navlya-Khutor-Mikhailovsky railway lines were given over to Kaminsky’s control,” writes historian A.R. Dyukov. – It was in these areas that the so-called “Southern Bryansk Partisan Region” operated... Thus, Kaminsky was given territories de facto controlled by the partisans... In order to save “German blood”, the command of the 2nd Tank Army agreed to grant Bronislav, who had demonstrated his loyalty to the occupiers, Kaminsky to “militarize” the area subordinate to him and fight the partisans – naturally, under German control” (Die Aktion Kaminsky “Trampled Victory. Against Lies and Revisionism”).

One of the Kamino residents, Mikheev, honestly admitted: “Only 10% of the forest belonged to us.” And General Bernhard Ramcke stated: “The militants of engineer Kaminsky cannot repel major attacks on themselves.” In fact, the Nazis staged a kind of experiment on the “Untermensch” subordinates, whose main task was to protect the railway lines from the partisans. The experiment failed miserably, which is why, by the way, the Germans never did this anywhere else.

Kaminsky's end was inglorious: the Germans shot him during the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising.

SUICIDE COMPLEX

In general, if deserters desperately wanted to live, and the lost wanted to atone for their guilt, then ideological anti-communists sought death with the persistence of suicides. And here it is appropriate to recall other “heroes” of the anti-Bolshevik struggle. “Member and then leader of the Russian Imperial Union-Order N. Sakhnovsky fought as part of the Belgian Walloon Legion of SS troops under the command of the deeply religious Catholic Leon Degrelle,” writes historian V. Larionov. “Sakhnovsky’s battalion received weapons only in Ukraine, and, breaking out of encirclement, in the Korsun-Shevchenko operation of the Red Army, almost all of the battalion died in heroic hand-to-hand combat” (“Vityazi of Holy Rus'”).

This is just some kind of extravaganza - “he died in hand-to-hand combat”, but no weapons were issued! It is clear why the Nazis assigned the role of slaves and cannon fodder to Russian “helpers”. But how could the Russian people grab such a deadly bait? It is significant that fans of collaboration do their best to glorify the Cossacks who followed P.N. Krasnov and were eventually handed over to Stalin by Western democracies. (For some reason, the act of extradition itself is called betrayal, which is completely ridiculous, because the allies did not betray anyone. They were just fulfilling their allied obligations, handing over to the USSR those who fought on the side of Germany - against themselves as well.) How It is known that many of these unfortunates committed suicide, fearing “terrible reprisals.”

These horrors are greatly exaggerated, and the attitude towards collaborators was often very liberal. Here is an example: on October 31, 1944, the British authorities handed over 10 thousand repatriates who had served in the Wehrmacht to the Soviet allies. As soon as they arrived in Murmansk, they were announced a pardon, as well as exemption from criminal liability. However, they had to pass the test, and the collaborators spent a year in a filtration camp, which is quite logical. After this, the vast majority were released, moreover, their work experience was accrued.

Archive data has long been opened, which exposes the lie that supposedly all or most of the prisoners were imprisoned. Historian V.N. Zemskov worked in the State Archive of the Russian Federation and studied the materials stored there. It turns out that by March 1, 1946, 2,427,906 repatriates were sent to their place of residence, 801,152 were sent to serve in the Soviet army, 608,095 were enrolled in the working battalions of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR. But 272,867 people (6.5%) were handed over to the NKVD of the USSR, and in fact, they were imprisoned.

The suicide of the Cossacks is a terrible end, which shows the depth of despair and doom of “Russian” collaboration.

Thousands of fighters against Bolshevism did not represent any independent force, did not possess any subjectivity. At first they went to fight for the Germans, then they rushed to seek the protection of the Anglo-Americans, hoping for their help and intercession. But among the collaborators holding extreme right-wing views, there were enough people who perfectly understood what Western democracies are. They knew that these were plutocracies that were trying to subjugate Russia. The same Krasnov in the novel “From the Double-Headed Eagle to the Red Banner” put into the mouth of his hero Sablin the words that the main enemy is England. And now people who only yesterday fought for the anti-democrat Hitler, with some kind of blind hope, rush into the arms of this most important enemy.

Petr Krasnov (third from left)

It may be objected that Krasnov and the Krasnovites used, albeit illusory, a chance for salvation. Yes, this is true, but it is significant that they themselves considered themselves completely dependent on some external, foreign forces. And this shows the inferiority of collaboration, which was expressed in a terrible disease of the will. If these people were truly confident that they were right, they would have continued the struggle, entering, for example, into an alliance with the Serbian Chetniks of D. Mihailovic.

In any case, one could make an attempt, because anything is better than taking one’s own life, committing the terrible sin of suicide. But in reality it turned out that these people had no self-confidence, there was only a blind hatred of Bolshevism, which was combined with a wild fear of it. And this hatred, mixed with fear, blinded and deafened the collaborators. They were not looking for Truth, but for Strength, having seen it in the deadly Teutonic armadas. They stood under the banners of foreign invaders, and this means political suicide. And then many of them - quite naturally - committed literal suicide.

Here are revealing lines from the diary of a certain Lydia Osipova, who passionately hated Bolshevism and wanted the arrival of the German liberators: “They are bombing, but we are not afraid. Bombs are liberation bombs. And that’s what everyone thinks and feels. Nobody is afraid of bombs... And when the Bolsheviks arrived, I decided to poison myself and poison Nikolai [husband. – A.E.] so that he doesn’t know it.” It’s wild to read all this; some really creepy, infernal abysses open up here. And again, suicidality is evident. Lack of personal strength, hatred and fear - all this threw ideological collaborators into a spinning funnel of suicide. They merged so much with someone else’s Power that they dissolved in it and died with it.

DISEASE OF WILL

Now we need to remember that collaboration also existed in countries where there were no Bolsheviks in power. Yu.A. wrote very well on this matter. Nersesov: “The population of the Third French Republic with colonies at the beginning of the war exceeded 110 million people... At least 200 thousand French citizens fell into the ranks of the German army. Another 500 thousand served in the military units of the collaborationist government of Marshal Pétain, which independently fought against the allies in Africa and the Middle East, and also joined German formations, making up, in particular, an infantry regiment and an artillery division in the famous 90th Light Motorized Division Field Marshal Rommel's Afrika Korps. Taking into account the police, Gestapo and fascist militants who diligently caught partisans and underground fighters, it turns out about 1 million with 80 thousand dead.

The same picture will be in any other European country. From Poland, where, with a pre-war population of 35 million, 500 thousand people joined the army and police from territories occupied by Germany alone, to Denmark, which, having capitulated to Germany almost without resistance, lost about 2.5 thousand people.

So it turns out that the share of collaborators in European countries, where there was neither the Gulag nor collective farms, is much higher than the Soviet one” (“The Myth of the Second Civil War”).

There were, of course, ideological people there, too, such as the Belgian SS man Leon Degrelle. In the winter of 1945, he led three battalions and three separate companies of Walloon volunteers to help German cities. After the battles near Stargard, only 625 people remained alive. Or SS volunteer Eugene Volot, the last of those to receive the Iron Cross in the Reich Chancellery. But these were a minority, and most collaborators simply submitted to the Force, bewitched by the power and ruthlessness of the German military-political machine. The same is true for most “Russian” collaborators. Although the disease of the will, forcing one to seek the Force (and not be it), was also inherent in Hitler’s ideological accomplices.

It must be said that in our country this disease of the will fatally overlaps with our long-standing Westernism, which is inherent in a wide variety of people, even those who are very, very far from collaborationism. The West is seen as a Power to which they bow. Not the Truth, but rather the Power, which is expressed in a ruthless, all-destructive expansion and unbridled accumulation of material resources. This Power kills and enslaves the will, turning a person into an object, a conductor of cosmic power. Ultimately, the subjects of the Force themselves become such objects - let us remember that a plutocrat is also a slave to his capital.

In 1941–1945, the majority of Russians fought on the side of Pravda, opposing the armadas of the German Force. And the minority bowed to the Force, which made them weak and doomed them to defeat.

Military collaborationism

The Second World War is one of the most important events of the twentieth century, which had a great impact on the fate of the entire globe.

Actions of this scale include plots of the most varied nature: victories and defeats, exploits and betrayals, meanness and heroism, betrayal and unparalleled devotion, etc. All this once again confirms the diversity and ambiguity of such historical phenomena.

In this article we will focus on the problem of military collaboration during the Great Patriotic War. According to various estimates, from 350 thousand to 1.5 million people were involved in this type of collaboration.

The French term “collaborationism” means voluntary or deliberate cooperation with the enemy of a part of the population of an occupied country in various fields to the detriment of their state.

Reasons for military collaboration

Among the reasons that led to collaboration with the Nazis, historians usually name: dissatisfaction with the Soviet regime (collectivization and dispossession of the peasantry, religious policy, mass political repressions of the 1930s), personal ambitions, mercantile interests, a situation of hopelessness, conditions of captivity. All this took place, but, of course, among this whole complex of reasons, it will not be the political, ideological motives of cooperation with the enemy that will prevail, but, first of all, the circumstances of forced assistance in order to survive under the German occupation. Let us recall that the number of the Soviet population that came under occupation during the Great Patriotic War reached 80 million people.

It should be noted that Hitler was initially extremely skeptical about the idea of ​​​​using the occupied Soviet population and Russian emigration as a military force against the Red Army, considering them extremely unreliable. However, many German commanders (especially the Wehrmacht), in the face of increasing combat losses on the Eastern Front, very quickly realized the need to attract representatives of the USSR, precisely as “people with weapons.” And subsequently, despite Hitler’s prohibitory orders, they used this human resource in every possible way to protect the rear, participate in combat operations at the front, fight against partisans and other operations.

Let us consider the main types of military collaboration during the Great Patriotic War.

Cossacks

The Germans pursued a special policy towards the Cossacks. The fact is that among the top of Nazi Germany there was a point of view that the Cossacks are descendants of the Ostrogoths, which means they belong not to the Slavic, but to the Aryan race. This radically changed Hitler’s attitude towards this subethnic group, so the creation of Cossack formations began in the summer of 1941. The Germans also hoped for the presence of anti-Soviet sentiments, widespread among the Cossacks after the policy of decossackization and political repression by the Soviet government.

The Germans promised autonomy, the destruction of collective farms, tax cuts, the opening of churches, etc. The Germans also managed to win over a number of well-known representatives of the Cossack emigration, in particular P. N. Krasnov and A. G. Shkuro. It is important to keep in mind that for the majority of Cossacks who took the path of cooperation with the Germans, the main motivation was not Hitler’s ideas, but thoughts about recreating in the future “Great Russia without the “communists”, which, from their point of view, justified forced collaboration.

In general, between October 1941 and April 1945, about 80 thousand people passed through the Cossack units that fought on the side of Germany. Let's name just some Cossack formations: Cossack Stan, 15th Cossack Russian Corps of SS Troops, 5th Don Cossack Cavalry Regiment, 1st Sinegorsk Ataman Cossack Regiment, 1st Cossack Division; 182 Cossack squadron of the Wehrmacht, military Cossack unit “Free Kuban”. The geography of hostilities with the participation of anti-Soviet Cossack formations eventually covered not only the territory of the USSR, but also the countries of Southern, Western and Eastern Europe.

I. N. Kononov is a former major of the Red Army, a Don Cossack, who later became a Wehrmacht colonel and one of the symbols of the Cossack anti-Bolshevik movement.

However, despite all of the above, the Germans failed to persuade the entire Cossacks to collaborate - by the end of 1941 alone, 116 cavalry divisions fought against the Germans. It was the Cossacks who became the core of the Soviet cavalry, both in the initial period of the war and at its final stage. And if you look at the recording of the 1945 Victory Parade, you can see representatives of the Cossacks among other branches of the military.

Eastern battalions and companies, "hivi"

The lack of their human combat resources (by April 1942, the losses of the German army on the Eastern Front amounted to 35% of personnel), the active partisan movement in the rear led to the fact that the Germans were forced to take measures to increase military and police formations from the local population and Soviet prisoners of war .

Most researchers believe that the main reasons for cooperation with the Germans were captivity, the occupation regime and the hardships associated with them, and not voluntariness, as Hitler’s propaganda tried to present. After appropriate military training under the leadership of German officers, Russian units turned into full-fledged combat units, capable of performing a wide variety of tasks - from guarding facilities to conducting punitive expeditions in partisan areas.

A special category of Soviet people who entered the service of the German army included the so-called “Hiwis” - an abbreviation for the German word “Hilfswillige” (literally, those who want to help). They were used as an auxiliary force to serve the rear of the active German army as grooms, drivers, cooks, guides, translators, etc. Often, many officers and generals of the German army, without permission, despite Hitler’s prohibitions, made decisions to arm the Hivi and use them to make up for the losses of the rear units in the fight against the partisans.

False partisans, Ukraine, autumn 1943

Jagdkommandos (fighter or hunting teams) were also created at the headquarters of German units and formations - small, well-equipped groups with automatic weapons, often posing as partisans, which were used to search for and destroy partisan detachments.

By the end of 1943, the number of “eastern formations” amounted to about 300-350 thousand people (Volunteer Regiment “Desna”, Division “Russland”, Russian SS Brigade “Druzhina”, Russian National People’s Army, Volunteer Regiment SS “Varyag”, 1- th Eastern Volunteer Regiment consisting of two battalions - “Berezina” and “Dnepr”, etc.). However, quantity does not mean quality. Very soon, cases of low combat effectiveness, desertion among the “Eastern volunteers” and their transition to the side of the Red Army began to be noted. As a result, in September-October 1943, almost all “eastern formations” were moved from the Eastern Front to the Western Front, however, the formation of new units was stopped.

On August 14, 1943, most of the “Druzhina” brigade (about 2.5 thousand people) under the leadership of V.V. Gilya-Rodionova went over to the side of the partisans. He subsequently received the rank of colonel in the Red Army and headed the 1st Anti-Fascist Partisan Brigade.

National military formations

The Germans placed particular hope in the occupation territories on the formation of national military formations. The Nazis tried to take advantage of the severity of interethnic relations in the USSR, encouraging nationalism and the ideas of creating independent states (though only in words).

The main epicenters of the formation of national military formations were Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states, and the Caucasus.

Newspaper of the North Caucasus collaborators

On the territory of Ukraine, immediately after the arrival of the Germans, the formation of collaborationist national military units and police units began under various names: “All-Ukrainian Liberation Army” (VOA), “Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists” (OUN), “Ukrainian Insurgent Army” (UPA), “Ukrainian National Army" (UNA), SS division "Galicia". The formations were used to fight Red Army units and partisans. However, very soon the ideas of a “third force” became popular among Ukrainian nationalists - the fight for the “independence” of Ukraine, without the Stalinist and Nazi regimes. This manifested itself later when the OUN(b), led by S. Bandera, put up fierce resistance to Soviet power until the early 1950s.

Reichsführer SS G. Himmler during an inspection of the SS division "Galicia"

Various collaborationist organizations were also created in the Baltic states and Belarus - “Self-Defense”, “Belarusian Regional Defense” (BKA), 1st Belarusian Grenadier Brigade of the SS “Belarus”, “Lithuanian Territorial Corps” (LTK), “Latvian SS Legion”, “Estonian Legion”, etc. Armed formations created by the Germans were used to incite national hatred. So, for example, Latvian punitive forces in February - March 1943 on the territory of Belarus destroyed and burned alive 15 thousand local residents, drove more than 2 thousand to hard labor in Germany, and destroyed 158 settlements.

The Belarusian village of Khatyn has become a symbol of the mass extermination of civilians carried out by the Nazis and collaborators in the occupied territory of the USSR

On December 20, 1941, Adolf Hitler gave official consent to the creation of units of non-Slavic origin in the Wehrmacht. 4 “Eastern Legions” were created under the code names: “Turkestan”, “Azerbaijan”, “North Caucasus”, “Volga-Tatar”. Some of them were sent to the front, some acted in the occupied territories against partisans, carrying out repressions against civilians.

While in a military camp for captured senior officers, Vlasov agreed to cooperate with the Nazis and headed the “Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia” (KONR) and the “Russian Liberation Army” (ROA), composed of captured Soviet military personnel. There is a point of view that Vlasov was greatly influenced by the very fact of his captivity, moreover, by local “his” policemen, the tragedy of the 2nd Shock Army, which he commanded, and wandering through the forests while surrounded.

The formation of the “Russian Liberation Army” (unofficially also called “Vlasovites”) began in 1943. The Germans recruited her mainly to perform security and police service and fight partisans in the occupied territory of the USSR, and also as a propaganda mouthpiece in order to attract new volunteers from among Soviet prisoners of war. And only at the end of 1944 the ROA began to be used in combat operations, mainly on the Western Front. The first military clash between units of the ROA and the Red Army took place on April 13, 1945, and on May 12 the ROA ceased to exist.

German propaganda leaflet

Thus, military collaboration was caused primarily by reasons of a psychological nature (the desire to protect and save oneself and family, to survive under occupation, to get rid of difficult conditions of captivity) and only in the background were reasons of an ideological and political nature associated with rejection of the Stalinist regime . However, this fact cannot in any way serve as an excuse for traitors who agreed to cooperate with the enemy, since history during the Great Patriotic War has given us many examples of absolute courage, when the Russian people, even in the face of death, continued to resist and did not give up.

Vladimir Gizhov, Ph.D.

There are different forms of collaboration: military, political and economic. One way or another, many Soviet people who did not dare to join the ranks of the partisans had to interact with the occupation regime. Candidate of Military Sciences A. Tsiganok claims that about 10% of the population collaborated with the occupiers in one way or another.

Carrying out agricultural activities, repairing roads, cleaning administrative institutions or carrying out a death sentence - all these actions in the territories captured by the Germans during the Second World War fall under the definition of collaboration. Until April 1943, there was no clarification in the legal sphere regarding the severity of guilt in relation to Nazi collaborators.

Who are the collaborators and what did they do during the Second World War?

Active military collaboration is one of the most tragic topics in the history of the USSR. An impressive number of Soviet citizens served in the military units of Nazi Germany during the Second World War, which allows us to consider collaborationism a mass phenomenon. Candidate of Military Sciences A. Tsiganok names the figure - up to 1.5 million people, Russian historian K. Alexandrov - 1.24 million. And these are only those who defended the interests of the Third Reich with arms in hand, performing tasks such as police surveillance and punitive operations against partisans.

Auxiliary police units were formed from local residents of the occupied territories, which allowed the German administration to maintain order in populated areas. The duties of the guards included checking documents, guarding prisons and concentration camps, and guarding agricultural facilities.

The police also had to catch the “encirclement” - Red Army soldiers who had escaped from the cauldrons. Any person in the forest who did not have special permission to go for firewood was subject to capture and delivery to the German administration. Policemen received 30 Reichsmarks, rations, clothes, shoes and 6 cigarettes per day.

To destroy partisan detachments and the population loyal to them, Schuma battalions were created from collaborating policemen, whose participants were well paid (from 40 to 130 Reichsmarks, depending on age and marital status; married people with children received more than single people).

The battalions numbered 500 people, and only 9 of them were Germans. Together with regular troops, such units carried out anti-partisan operations, which were particularly brutal. From the report on Operation Swamp Fever (Belarus, 1942), we see that the punitive forces killed 389 armed partisans in battle, while the number of “suspicious persons” executed after the battle was 1,274 people (3 times more than those killed in battle).

One more way of cooperation with the Nazis should be identified - economic and passive military interaction, which also became quite widespread. There were about 1 million volunteer assistants to the Wehrmacht (they were called hiwi from Hilfwilliger). They did the work of orderlies, cooks, and sappers.

Who decided to serve the Hitler regime

Prisoners made up the bulk of the military collaborators. Staying true to the oath was extremely difficult. The first reason: the Red Army soldiers were not covered by the Geneva Convention “On the Treatment of Prisoners of War”; their conditions of detention were unbearable. As a result of exhaustion, epidemics and torture, many died.

In 1941, the position of the Wehrmacht was clear - all USSR military personnel were subject to destruction; there were no plans to recruit them into units of German troops. Russian geographer and publicist P. Polyan claims that of the captured Red Army soldiers in the first year of the Second World War, only 20% of the people survived.

With the first setbacks on the Eastern Front and the growth of the partisan movement, the situation began to change. The German military-political leadership formed police units from collaborators, which made it possible to free up a significant part of the personnel for battles on the front line.

The second reason is the Soviet leadership equating surrender with a crime. There was an order dated August 16, 41 No. 270 “On the responsibility of military personnel for surrendering and leaving weapons to the enemy.”

Another layer of the population, in which many collaborators were noted, are citizens with an anti-Soviet position. These are mainly those who lost property during collectivization, relatives of repressed citizens. It should be noted that the motive of the fight against Bolshevism is greatly exaggerated in Western historiography. In reality, few contributed to the Third Reich under these slogans. The children of those who were repressed as participants in the monarchist movement were often not told the details of the events out of fear. For security reasons, the new generation was not instilled with the idea of ​​​​the need to fight against Bolshevism.

The Nazis successfully recruited representatives of national minorities of the Soviet Union, using the idea of ​​​​creating independent states. The strategy was effective where the national issue was especially acute - Ukraine, the Baltic states, the Caucasus.

Historians do not give exact figures, since the topic of collaboration was hushed up for a long time and was not studied properly. But most scientists agree that the lion's share of those who collaborated with the Nazis had the main task of surviving. There were a small number of those who fought against Bolshevism.

How military collaborators distinguished themselves

Nazi collaborators did not achieve significant success in the battles against the Red Army and the troops of the Anti-Hitler Coalition. But history knows many high-profile punitive operations, the tragedy and cruelty of which go beyond understanding.

In 1941, in the Babi Yar tract (near Kiev), with the participation of Ukrainian collaborators, a mass execution of Soviet prisoners of war, as well as the civilian population of Jewish and Gypsy nationalities, was carried out. The number of deaths ranges from 100 to 150 thousand people.

“Winter Magic” is an anti-partisan operation in the north of Belarus, carried out in 1943, in which Ukrainian and 7 Latvian police battalions took part. As a result of the action, about 11 thousand people were killed, including children.

The Kryukov tragedy, which occurred in a village in the Chernigov region, ended in the death of more than 6 thousand people, most of whose bodies were impossible to identify. These are only the largest operations of the collaborators; in total, hundreds of thousands of people suffered from them.

The more time passes after the war, the more questions arise for anyone interested in history, and the more valuable are the photographs taken at that time. This is what it looks like.

Collaborationism, to one degree or another, accompanied all major armed conflicts in world history (it just had a different name), but it was in World War II that it became most widespread.

The word collaborationism itself appeared in 1940 and originally denoted the collaboration of the French with the Nazis, which was called for by the head of the Vichy regime, Marshal Philippe Pétain. During the war, collaborationism was widespread, national SS divisions were created in all territories occupied by the Germans. Of the 38 SS divisions, only 12 were manned by Germans. Volunteer armies and national divisions were formed on all fronts of the war: from India to Denmark. There were only separate Greek, Polish, Czech and Lithuanian formations, although representatives of these nations were represented in other German units.

Much has been said about the reasons for collaboration. This is both dissatisfaction with the existing government and mercantile interests. The first reason is most often tried to justify Soviet collaboration, since the time that has passed since the Civil War, collectivization and dispossession was very insignificant on a historical scale.

The unity of the people, which Soviet propaganda spoke of, had not yet been formed by 1941, the standard of living left much to be desired, so part of the population in the occupied territories, if they did not accept the Germans with bread and salt, then experienced some hopes with the advent of the “new government.”

If we talk about European collaboration, then it is worth taking into account what was artificial as a result of the Treaty of Versailles, which became the cause of nationalism among the ethnic majority of many countries.

When people talk about collaboration during the war today, they usually remember the Russian Liberation Army of General Vlasov, the Cossack SS divisions and the Galicia division. However, despite the undoubted similarities of these combat units, they differed significantly. The backbone of the ROA consisted of white emigrants, whose nominal goal was the fight against Bolshevism; Cossack divisions fought for the “independence” they were promised and Cossacks.

With “Galicia” the situation was completely strange. According to Kubiyovich’s recollections, the initiator of the creation of the division, Wechter, believed that “Galicia was a country in which it was necessary to resume German (Austrian) influence, which had been occurring since the second half of the 18th century.”

It is significant that Hitler was initially very skeptical about the idea of ​​​​creating national divisions in the occupied territories. According to the racial theory of the Third Reich, all “non-Aryans” were considered “Untermensch”, “subhumans”, and therefore, in the future, the Germans planned the areization of the conquered peoples.

What allowed Hitler to attract a significant part of the Cossacks to his side was the theory that the Cossacks belonged to the Ostrogoths, and therefore the idea of ​​liberation from ““ should be no less attractive to them.

Already in December 1942, the Cossack Administration of the Don, Kuban and Terek (Kozaken Leite-Stelle) was organized. The promised independence of the Cossacks implied not only special priority conditions for the Cossacks, but also their obligations to the Reich. A large food tax was removed from Cossack territories. The idea of ​​​​creating an independent Cossackia did not live long; the Third Reich abandoned it already in January 1943.
The Germans failed to persuade everyone to cooperate. It was the Cossacks who were the core of the cavalry of the Red Army; by the end of 1941, 116 Cossack cavalry divisions were fighting against the Nazis.

Most of the Soviet collaborators were the so-called “hiwis” - soldiers of the Wehrmacht auxiliary troops. For the most part, they were recruited from among captured Red Army soldiers. According to the historian Romanko, the number of “Khivi” in the Wehrmacht was 665-675 thousand people.
On April 29, 1943, Hiwis were officially allowed to wear German uniforms, but without German emblems, buttonholes and shoulder straps. Despite the large number of “Khiwis,” they cannot be unambiguously classified as ideological collaborators; the prisoners went to help Nazi Germany for reasons of conformity.

In the occupied territories, yagdkommandos (extermination or hunting teams) were also formed - “false partisans”, which were used to search for and destroy real partisans.

By the end of 1943, the number of “eastern formations” was about 300-350 thousand people, but such a large number did not indicate quality.

Desertion, low combat effectiveness and frequent defections to the side of the Red Army indicated that the Germans could only rely on collaborators with great caution.

What can we say if the “famous” division “Galicia” existed for less than two years and suffered a crushing defeat at Brody in the summer of 1944.

By and large, collaboration was the greatest deception of World War II. Residents of the occupied territories cooperated with the Germans, hoping for a better life, however, as history has shown, all the propaganda of the Third Reich was only a tool for the functioning of the German military machine.f

Today's slaves are tomorrow's traitors.
Napoleon Bonaparte

Not only in Ukraine or the Baltic states, but also in Leningrad,
Pskov, Novgorod regions population
welcomed the occupiers.
Ya.Kaunator

...In the first months of the war, when German troops marched along
recently “liberated” territories, there were episodes
when the population welcomed the occupiers.
From Wikipedia

During and after World War II, Stalin initiated the total deportation of ten peoples of the Soviet Union, indiscriminately accused of collaborating with Nazi Germany (Germans, Koreans, Ingrian Finns, Karachais, Kalmyks, Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, Crimean Tatars and Meskhetian Turks), and in total, during the war years, peoples and population groups of 61 nationalities were subjected to forcible resettlement. In total, about 3 million people were subjected to Stalin’s ethnic “cleansing” operations.

Mass deportations were carried out at the cost of inhuman suffering and hundreds of thousands of human lives. The directive on the demobilization of their representatives and resettlement to the “bear corners” of the country is imbued with Stalin’s hatred of some peoples of the USSR. Among those indiscriminately accused without trial or investigation were not only military personnel awarded orders and medals, but even several Heroes of the Soviet Union. At the same time, it was completely silent that real, and not fictitious, collaborators consisted primarily of Russians and that 75% of the foreign legionnaires of the Wehrmacht, recruited from conquered countries, were “Soviet”. Their total number was close to one and a half million (!) people who passed through 800 (!) army battalions and other fascist military and civilian structures. Naturally, these were not only Russians: the collaborators reflected the multinational composition of the USSR, but the Russians dominated among the traitors. According to Vadim Petrovich Makhno, a captain of the first rank, who served for several decades in the USSR Black Sea Fleet, in the SS units alone, about 10 divisions were staffed by “Eastern volunteers”, in which up to 150 thousand former Soviet citizens served.

This figure (1.5 million accomplices) is comparable only to the total number of mobilized citizens of Hitler’s allied countries (Italy, Spain, Hungary, Romania, Finland, Croatia, Slovakia) - about 2 million people. For comparison, I will indicate the number of mobilized in other countries conquered by Hitler: Denmark - less than 5 thousand, France - less than 10 thousand, Poland - 20 thousand, Belgium - 38 thousand military personnel...

In addition to the total (total) number of traitor-accomplices from the USSR, the German archives preserved exact data on the number of those mobilized by the Germans into the army from the territory of the USSR: RSFSR - 800 thousand, Ukraine - 250 thousand, Belarus - 47 thousand, Latvia - 88 thousand ., Estonia - 69 thousand, Lithuania - 20 thousand military personnel. Among the collaborators there were also Cossacks - 70 thousand, representatives of the peoples of Transcaucasia and Central Asia - 180 thousand, representatives of the peoples of the North Caucasus - 30 thousand, Georgians - 20 thousand, Armenians - 18 thousand, Azerbaijanis - 35 thousand, Volga Tatars - 40 thousand, Crimean Tatars - 17 thousand and Kalmyks - 5 thousand.

Of the 2.4 million surviving Soviet prisoners (and the mortality rate among Soviet prisoners exceeded 60%), approximately 950 thousand entered service in various anti-Soviet armed formations of the Wehrmacht. The following categories of Russians served in the local auxiliary forces of the German army:

1) volunteer helpers (hivi);
2) order service (odi);
3) front-line auxiliary units (noise);
4) police and defense teams (gema).

At the beginning of 1943, there were up to 400 thousand Khivi in ​​the Wehrmacht, from 60 to 70 thousand Odi, and 80 thousand in the eastern battalions. About 183 thousand people worked on the railway in Kyiv and Minsk, ensuring the movement of Nazi units and military cargo. To this should be added from 250 to 500 thousand prisoners of war who escaped repatriation to the USSR after the war (in total, more than 1.7 million people did not return to their homeland), as well as a large number of traitors who handed over captured commissars and Jews to the Nazi authorities. In June 1944, the total number of Khivi reached 800 thousand people.

The enormous scale of betrayal during World War II (as well as the massive, multi-million emigration from Russia) for me is clear evidence of the “inflatedness” and “inflatedness” of Russian patriotism. In order to hide the enormous scale of collaboration, our historians bashfully write that “the maximum number of those who collaborated with the occupation authorities during the Second World War was in countries with the maximum population”...

That's not all: about 400 thousand former "Soviet" served as policemen for the Nazis and about 10% of the population of the occupied part of the USSR actively collaborated with the occupiers - I mean wachmans, members of the "Aisatzgruppen", elders, burgomasters, Russian officials of the German administration, informer house managers, journalists and priests working for German propaganda...

Taking into account the fact that there were more than 60 million people in the occupied territories, that is, about 40% of the population of the Soviet Union, even with 10% actively collaborating, the figure again reaches a multi-million dollar figure... I believe that this is a world record for mass betrayal in the history of all wars that humanity has ever led. For example, about 5,000 thousand wachmans passed through the security battalions of German concentration camps, who took personal part in the torture and massacres of concentration camp prisoners, as well as residents of Nazi-occupied European countries. The “Eisatzgruppen” created by Heydrich, which hunted Jews and took a direct part in their executions (in fact, firing squads that killed about 2 million people), usually included about 10% of local residents. In particular, all the inhabitants of the Belarusian Khatyn were shot or burned alive by the Aizatskommando, which included 20% of the locals... I cannot give the exact number of Russian prostitutes serving Wehrmacht soldiers, but each German division was assigned a brothel according to the staff.

To this it should be added that in 1941 alone the Red Army suffered the following losses:
— 3.8 million people. prisoners (against 9,147 German soldiers and officers, that is, 415 times fewer Soviet prisoners of war!);
- more than 500 thousand killed and died from wounds in hospitals;
- 1.3 million wounded and sick.

Abandoned by their officers, demoralized Soviet soldiers surrendered to the Nazis or hid from the enemy. In October 1941, the 1st Deputy Head of the Directorate of Special Departments of the NKVD, S. Milshtein, reported to the Minister of the NKVD, Lavrentiy Beria: “... From the beginning of the war to October 10, 1941, the special departments of the NKVD and the Barrage Detachments detained 657,364 military personnel who lagged behind and fled from the front.” By the end of 1941, only 8% of the personnel at the beginning of the war remained in the army (June 22, 1941)

Ours also have a routine justification for all these shameful facts: they say that their cause was the dissatisfaction of part of the population with the Soviet regime (including collectivization). This is true, but not the whole truth. Many Russians went into the service of the fascists because they were brought up in the spirit of chauvinistic, nationalist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic ideas and regular pogroms against Jews. In addition, as I found out in the book “Russian Fascism,” Russian pogroms preempted German ones, and Nazi ideas embraced wide sections of the “white movement.” In fact, high patriotism is possible when you feel your country is yours, free, prosperous, and, in the end, simply comfortable to live in. When all this is absent, patriotism, whether we like it or not, invariably degenerates into “Russian marches”, the Nashi “Seliger”, xenophobia, gloating at the failures of others, pathetic imitations of loyalty, ending in betrayal...

Professor, Doctor of Law Lev Simkin wrote that many Russians believed that “it is unlikely that there would be a worse power in the world than the Soviet one - they did not evacuate for ideological reasons. 22 million citizens of the USSR collaborated with the occupiers.” And one more thing: “Nazism lay on prepared ground - the Soviet government managed to instill in people a firm belief in the existence of the enemy. We were not used to living without an enemy, and changing his image was a common thing. Propaganda changed its sign: if communist propaganda branded kulaks and “enemies of the people,” then Nazi propaganda branded communists and Jews.”

However, there were also deeper historical prerequisites for military collaboration. Friedrich Engels, characterizing Russian bureaucracy and officers in his serious analytical work “Army of Europe”, prophetically wrote: “What the lower class of officials, recruited from the children of the same officials, are in the Russian civil service, the same are officers in the army: cunning, baseness views, narrowly selfish behavior are combined with a superficial primary education, making them even more disgusting; vain and greedy for profit, having sold themselves body and soul to the state, at the same time they themselves sell it every day and hourly in little things, if it can be in the least profitable for them... This category of people, in the civil and military fields, mainly supports the enormous corruption that permeates all branches of the public service in Russia.”

Today's slaves are tomorrow's traitors.
Napoleon Bonaparte

I could reinforce the thought of Napoleon and Engels: it is difficult to demand patriotism from slaves, whom the Russian authorities have always tried to convert their own people into. And the fear of “masters” imposed on the people did little to promote love. L. Puzin is ironic: “The Russians always fought poorly, so they were forced to fight heroically.” The Russians lost military campaigns so often (as Engels also writes) because deep down they feared their own people more than their enemies. However, they also won “heroically”, not in the least out of fear of firing squads.

How many people even think about the fact that a flawed government gives rise not only to a flawed life, but also to mass hatred towards such a life and towards the country that eternally gives rise to it? Quite naturally, this manifests itself most strongly in difficult periods of history. Although Russia has always boasted of its patriotism, the revolution and wars showed its price - and not only in the form of grandiose collaborationism that has no historical analogies. Why is that? Because, my friend L. Puzin answers, patriotic education is understood in Russia as the education of slaves who are ready to defend the interests of their masters without sparing their lives.

K. Bondarenko saw the roots of betrayal in the very depths of Russian history: collaboration here was elevated to the rank of dignity, he wrote: “the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky, whose brother, Andrei, opposed the Horde, not only did not support his brother - he became one of the closest Batu's comrades in the last years of the bloody khan's life, and, according to a common version, was poisoned in the Horde, becoming a victim of the struggle for power between Batu's heirs. Alexander's grandson, Ivan Daniilovich Kalita, Prince of Moscow, went down in history thanks to the fact that he himself decided to collect tribute for the Tatars, offering his services instead of those of the Baskaks. “Thus, part of the tribute remained in Moscow, hiding from the khan, and this factor contributed to the strengthening of the Moscow principality,” historians are touched. At the same time, without pointing out one significant point: Kalita robbed his own people ... "

As an example of the insight of the “classic”, it is enough to recall the massive violation of the oath of the Russian officers, who betrayed the Tsar and Kerensky in turn. Moreover, it was the tsarist officers who formed the backbone of the leadership of the Red Army (Bonch-Bruevich, Budyonny, Tukhachevsky, Blucher, Krylenko, Dybenko, Antonov-Ovsienko, Muravyov, Govorov, Bagramyan, Kamenev, Shaposhnikov, Egorov, Kork, Karbyshev, Chernavin, Eideman, Uborevich , Altvater, Lebedev, Samoilo, Behrens, von Taube...) - only 48.5 thousand tsarist officers, only 746 former lieutenant colonels, 980 colonels, 775 generals. In the decisive year of 1919, they made up 53% of the entire command staff of the Red Army.

The Supreme Military Council of the Army, created by the Bolsheviks on March 4, 1918, included 86 tsarist officers with the rank of major and lieutenant colonel to general (10 people). Of the 46 members of the senior command staff of the Red Army as of May 1922, 78.3% were career officers of the old tsarist army, of which 7 were former generals, 22 lieutenant colonels and colonels, 8.8% came from the imperial life guard. According to A.G. Kavtardze, in total, about 30% of the pre-revolutionary officer corps of Tsarist Russia betrayed the previous authorities and joined the Red Army, which greatly contributed to the victory of the “Reds” in the Civil War. 185 generals of the General Staff of the Imperial Army later served in the corps of the General Staff of the Red Army, and this number does not include generals who held other positions in the Red Army. Most of the 185 served in the Red Army voluntarily, and only six were mobilized. It was no coincidence that a saying arose then: The Red Army is like a radish - red on the outside, but white on the inside.

(The Bolsheviks “thanked” the creators of the Red Army by almost completely destroying the pre-revolutionary officer corps. Of the total number of 276 thousand tsarist officers as of the fall of 1917 and 48.5 thousand defectors by June 1941, there were hardly more than a few hundred in the army ranks, and then, mainly, commanders from former warrant officers and second lieutenants. In Leningrad alone, more than a thousand former military experts were shot. Among them: division commander A. Svechin, P. Sytin - the former commander of the Southern Front, Yu. Gravitsky, A. Verkhovsky, A. Snesarev and others. In 1937, in the notorious “military” case, Marshal Tukhachevsky, Uborevich - the commander of the Belarusian Military District, Kork - the commissar of the Military Academy, the commander of the Leningrad Military District Iona Yakir, the chairman of the Sovaviahim Eideman and others were shot). In one of his interviews, writer Boris Vasiliev said: “On the eve of the war, Stalin shot all talented people to hell. And often captains commanded divisions.”

Mass betrayal was repeated after 1991, when many state security officers and generals, called upon to protect the “socialist fatherland” and the “great principles of communism,” with extraordinary ease went into the service of the emerging capitalist class or joined the criminal ranks. Is it any wonder after this that Russian officers en masse sold weapons to Chechen terrorists? Anna Politkovskaya was dealt with precisely for exposing these betrayals, and in the Putin era, extrajudicial disputes became a method of state policy.

The former KGB agent has a resourcefulness worthy of Machiavelli, writes Gianni Riotta in the newspaper La Stampa. But, it seems to me, resourcefulness is still inferior to the main driving force - selfishness. In general, communism has developed this quality to the extent of universal genetic hunger: in all post-Soviet plowmen, this quality of national bandocracies dominates all others. I would not be surprised by the information that the current leaders were completely bought up or recruited in their youth, as A. Illarionov transparently hints at in an article on Ekho Moskvy, dedicated to the secret springs of M. Khodorkovsky’s pardon.

The military writer V. Beshanov, who served as a naval officer, testifies that in 1989, when his warship sailed through the Bosporus and Dardanelles, a vigilance watch consisting of political workers and officers was posted on the deck, and the sailors were driven below deck. For what? They were afraid that they would run away to capra, in other words, they would desert... Perhaps they were subconsciously afraid, knowing the enormous scale of desertion during the war of 1941-1945.

Engels also has other prophecies on the “Russian” theme: “The Russian revolution is already ripe and will break out soon, but once it begins, it will carry away the peasants with it, and then you will see scenes that will make the scenes of ’93 pale in comparison.” Reading things like this, I always think that time has always passed Russia by.

A great deal of evidence can be given for this. Here's just one of them. After visiting Russia, the French Marquis Astolphe de Custine wrote a sharply critical book “Nikolaevskaya Russia. 1839". I will not quote it, but I will note that a hundred years later, the US Ambassador to the USSR W.B. Smith (March 1946 - December 1948), after returning from the USSR, said about de Custine’s book: “... Before us are political observations so insightful, so timeless, that the book can be called the best work ever written about the Soviet Union."

Before Stalin's death, the existence of Russian units of the Wehrmacht was hidden, and for disclosing this information, many people ended up in camps. Nowadays, the literature relatively fully covers the activities of the Russian Liberation People's Army (ROA) under the command of General Vlasov, but it is very reluctant to say that the ROA was only a small fraction of the collaborators who went to serve the fascists. The fact that, moving east, the Germans everywhere encountered anti-Soviet partisan detachments operating in the Soviet rear, led by former Red Army officers, was also carefully hidden. The armed units of the collaborators partly arose spontaneously, and partly were recruited by the occupiers. By the way, about Vlasov. Molotov, in a fit of frankness, once said: “What Vlasov, Vlasov is nothing compared to what could have been...”

In order not to be unfounded, I will try to list as fully as possible, but far from exhaustively, the main collaborationist formations of Russians and Russian fascist parties:
— The Russian Liberation People's Army of the Wehrmacht (ROA), by the way, performed under the Russian tricolor, which became the banner of modern Russia. The ROA included 12 security corps, 13 divisions, 30 brigades;
— Combat Union of Russian Nationalists (BSRN);
- RONA (Russian Liberation People's Army) - 5 regiments, 18 battalions;
- 1st Russian National Army (RNNA) - 3 regiments, 12 battalions.
— Russian National Army — 2 regiments, 12 battalions;
- Division "Russland";
— Cossack Stan;
— Congress for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (KONR);
- Russian Liberation Army of the Congress of the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (3 divisions, 2 brigades).
- Air Force KONR (Aviation Corps KONR) - 87 aircraft, 1 air group, 1 regiment;
— Lokot Republic;
- Zuev's detachment;
— Eastern battalions and companies;
- 15th Cossack Russian Corps of SS troops - 3 divisions, 16 regiments;
- 1st Sinegorsk Ataman Cossack Regiment;
- 1st Cossack Division (Germany);
- 7th Volunteer Cossack Division;
— Military Cossack unit “Free Kuban”;
- 448 Cossack detachment;
- 30th SS Grenadier Division (Second Russian);
- Brigade of General A.V. Turkul;
- 1st Russian national SS brigade “Druzhina” (1st Russian national SS detachment);
— Regiment “Varyag” by Colonel M.A. Semenov;
— Higher German school for Russian officers;
— Dabendorf school of the Russian Academy of Arts;
— Russian detachment of the 9th Army of the Wehrmacht;
— SS Volunteer Regiment “Varyag”;
— SS Volunteer Regiment “Desna”;
- 1st Eastern Volunteer Regiment, consisting of two battalions - “Berezina” and “Dnepr” (from September - 601st and 602nd eastern battalions);
— eastern battalion “Pripyat” (604th);
- 645th battalion;
- Separate regiment of Colonel Krzhizhanovsky;
- volunteer Belgian Walloon Legion of the Wehrmacht;
- 5th assault brigade of the SS Wallonia troops under the SS Viking Panzer Division;
— Brotherhood of "Russian Truth";
- Muravyov Battalion;
— Nikolai Kozin’s squad;
— Russian volunteers in the Luftwaffe;
- Guard of the Russian Fascist Party;
- Corps of the Russian monarchist party;
— Russian Fascist Party;
— Russian National Labor Party;
— People's Socialist Party;
— Fighting Union of Russian Nationalists;
— Russian People's Labor Party;
— Political center of the fight against the Bolsheviks;
— Union of Russian Activists;
— Russian People's Party of Realists;
— Zeppelin Organization;
- Hivi (“Hilfswillige” - “volunteer helpers”).
— Russian personnel of the SS division “Charlemagne”;
- Russian personnel of the SS division "Dirlewanger".

In addition, the 12th Reserve Corps of the Wehrmacht at various periods included large formations of eastern troops, such as:
— Cossack (Russian) security corps of 15 regiments;
- 162nd Training Division of the Ostlegions of 6 regiments;
- 740th Cossack (Russian) reserve brigade of 6 battalions;
— Cossack (Russian) Group of the Marching Ataman of 4 regiments;
— Cossack group of Colonel von Panwitz of 6 regiments;
- Consolidated Cossack (Russian) field police division “Von Schulenburg”.

It should also be mentioned the Asano Brigade - Russian units of the Kwantung Army, and Russian units of the Japanese and Manchurian special services of Manchukuo.

As the Wehrmacht's casualties grew, and especially after the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942–1943, the mobilization of the local population became even more widespread. In the front line, the Germans began to mobilize the entire male population, including teenagers and old men, who for one reason or another were not taken to work in Germany.

Here we must also keep in mind that the turning point during the war led to significant changes in Nazi ideology. Hitler's doctrine of the “superior race” began to be replaced by the concept of the New European Order, which matured in the depths of Nazi ideology. According to this concept, after the victory of Germany, a United European Reich will be formed, and the form of government will be a confederation of European nations with a single currency, administration, police and army, which should include European units, including Russian ones. In this new community there was a place for Russia, but only free from Bolshevism.

The Belgian collaborator, founder of the Rexist party and commander of the 28th voluntary division of the SS "Wallonia" Leon Degrelle insisted on changing the status of the SS troops and their transformation from a purely German organization to a European one. He wrote: “From all parts of Europe, volunteers rushed to the aid of their German brothers. It was then that the third great Waffen SS was born. The first was German, the second was German, and now it has become the European Waffen SS.”

It is curious that the head of the Rosenberg Operational Headquarters, Herbert Utical, also adhered to a similar point of view, and one of the Nazis, R. Proksch, at a meeting of this headquarters at the end of 1944, said: “The hour of Europe has come. Therefore, we must admit: peoples differ from each other spiritually and physically... A mosaic of many possibilities... If the word “Europe” is pronounced, they are all meant... The current war for Europe must be accompanied by a new idea. In wars fought over ideological issues, the stronger ideas always win. This is the spiritual mandate to the Reich. The goal is unity in diversity... freedom of peoples in the unity of the continent."

It is not my task to dwell in detail on either the gradual change in Nazi ideology or all of the listed Russian pro-fascist military structures and Nazi collaborator parties, so I will limit myself to the most significant of them.

Russian Liberation Army (ROA). The number of ROA, formed mainly from Soviet prisoners of war, amounted to several hundred thousand people (and not 125 thousand, as follows from Soviet sources). About 800,000 people at different times wore the insignia of the ROA, but only a third of this number was recognized by the Vlasov leadership as belonging to their movement.

The ROA was headed by Lieutenant General Andrei Vlasov. According to V. Makhno, in total about 200 Red and White Russian generals served the Nazis.

The figure of Vlasov is far from being as clear-cut as it is presented in post-war sources. During the Civil War, Vlasov, after completing a four-month command course from 1919, took part in command positions in battles with the Whites on the Southern Front, then was transferred to headquarters. At the end of 1920, the group, in which Vlasov commanded cavalry and foot reconnaissance, was deployed to eliminate the insurgent movement led by Nestor Makhno.

He graduated from the Frunze Military Academy. Stalin sent him to China with secret missions to Chiang Kai-shek. Only a small part of the senior Soviet officers survived the purges of the Red Army in 1936–38, but Vlasov was among these chosen ones. In 1941, Stalin appointed him commander of the Second Shock Army. By personal order of Stalin, he was entrusted with the defense of Moscow, and he played a significant role in the operations that stopped the Nazi advance on the capital. Together with six other generals, he was ranked among the “saviors” of the city, and in January 1942, Vlasov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, but soon after that he was captured, and his army was almost completely destroyed while trying to repel the Nazi offensive in the Leningrad direction.

Vlasov was considered Stalin’s favorite, and at the end of June 1942, he was very concerned about Vlasov’s fate and demanded that he be taken out of the encirclement on Volkhov, saved at any cost; the corresponding radiograms were preserved.

Having been captured, Vlasov said during interrogation (August 1942) that Germany would not be able to defeat the Soviet Union - and this was at the moment when the Wehrmacht was reaching the Volga. Vlasov never connected his plans with Hitler’s victory in the East. At first, he sincerely hoped that he would be able to create a sufficiently strong and independent Russian army behind German lines. Then he counted on the activity of the conspirators and hatched plans for a radical change in occupation policy. Since the summer of 1943, Vlasov had pinned his hopes on the Western allies. Whatever the outcome, as it seemed to Vlasov, options were possible - the main thing was to get his own significant armed force. But, as history has shown, there were no options.

Frankly developing his views in a narrow circle of German listeners, Vlasov emphasized that among Stalin’s opponents there were many people “with a strong character, ready to give their lives for the liberation of Russia from Bolshevism, but rejecting German bondage.” At the same time, “they are ready to cooperate closely with the German people, without compromising their freedom and honor.” “The Russian people lived, lives and will live, they will never become a colonial people,” the former captive general firmly stated. Vlasov also expressed hope “for a healthy renewal of Russia and an explosion of the national pride of the Russian people.”

Both Russian and German sources agree that the ROA could have attracted at least 2,000,000 fighters out of a total of 5.5 million captured Red Army soldiers (!), if the Nazis had not interfered with the work of their own hands.

At first, the first ROA detachments were sent mainly to fight against the special troops of the NKVD operating in the German rear. The idea of ​​uniting disparate Russian formations into an anti-Soviet Russian army took hold in the summer of 1942. Its guide and inspirer was Vlasov, who had previously enjoyed such high favor from the Kremlin that Allied intelligence officials initially refused to believe the information about his collaboration with the enemy and considered it a propaganda trick by the enemy.

At the end of June 1942, Vlasov addressed an appeal to all “Russian patriots”, announcing the beginning of the liberation struggle. At the same time, at first it was kept silent that this struggle was supposed to take place under the auspices of the fascists. The Main Headquarters of the ROA was established in the suburb of Berlin Dabendorf. In August and September 1942, Vlasov visited the Leningrad, Pskov regions and Belarus. The response to his first appeals was enormous. Tens of thousands of letters from civilians and captured Red Army soldiers poured into the Dabendorf headquarters. The first shock guards brigade of the ROA was formed in May 1943 in Breslau. On November 14, the first and only Vlasov congress took place in Prague, where the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia was created and a stillborn Manifesto was adopted demanding the “destruction of Stalin’s tyranny” and the liberation of the Russian people from under the Bolshevik dictatorship. Surprisingly, even at the end of the war, facts were recorded of the voluntary transfer of small units of the Red Army to the side of the ROA.

I will not dwell on Vlasov’s contradictions with German functionaries and the transition of ROA units to the side of the Italian and Czech resistance at the end of the war. According to some reports, the First Division of the ROA came to the rescue of the Czech rebels who were in desperate straits and saved Prague from destruction by the Germans. The saved city was handed over to the Red Army, which immediately arrested and shot all the Vlasovites who did not have time to escape. The remnants of the ROA in Czechoslovakia and Austria surrendered to US troops.

After the war, the soldiers and officers of this army hid throughout Western Europe, and Soviet counterintelligence agents were busy mercilessly hunting these people. General Vlasov was captured for the second time on May 12, 1945. The trial of Vlasov was kept secret in order, firstly, to hide from the people the scale of Russian collaborationism and, secondly, the fact of the voluntary entry of Soviet officers and generals into his army.

The execution of A. Vlasov only opened a long list of major military leaders shot by Stalin until the murder of the tyrant himself in March 1953.

In total, according to Vyacheslav Zvyagintsev, who worked with the materials of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, only from August 18 to August 30, 1950, 20 generals and one marshal were sentenced to death.
At least six more military leaders were shot in captivity for collaborating with the Germans: brigade commanders Ivan Bessonov and Mikhail Bogdanov and four major generals Pavel Artemenko, Alexander Budykho, Andrei Naumov, Pavel Bogdanov and Evgeniy Egorov.
Generals who refused to cooperate with the Germans were also shot and captured, namely generals Artemenko, Kirillov, Ponedelin, Beleshev, Krupennikov, Sivaev, Kirpichnikov and brigade commander Lazutin. Some of them even successfully passed the post-war KGB special inspection and were reinstated into the ranks of the USSR Armed Forces (for example, Pavel Artemenko), but they were not spared either. For Stalin, Major General of Aviation Mikhail Beleshev was apparently to blame for the fact that he was the commander of the Air Force of the 2nd Shock Army - the same one that Vlasov commanded before his capture. All the rest turned out to be guilty of the military miscalculations of the “great leader” himself.
By the way, the stigma of the Vlasovites fell not only on the collaborators of the captured Second Shock Army, but also on the few military men who miraculously managed to escape from the Volkhov cauldron in which Vlasov himself was captured.
The general executions of 1950 became the final phase of the pogrom of the marshal-general group that Stalin began immediately after the Victory - as part of a whole series of cases unfolding at that time. Stalin needed to besiege the military leaders who imagined themselves to be victors (and such, of course, only Comrade Stalin could be!) and who allowed themselves to talk too much. Stalin was always afraid of the military and attacked their corporate cohesion. In 1950, he believed that in the war with the United States he would not be able to cope with the second edition of Vlasov and the Vlasovism.

Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (KONR). On November 14, 1944, the founding congress of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (KONR) was held in Prague, which proclaimed the unification of all anti-Soviet forces located in Germany, including emigrant organizations, national committees, the Vlasov army and other eastern formations, to fight “for a new free Russia against the Bolsheviks and exploiters." At the same time, the Armed Forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (AF KONR), represented mainly by the Vlasov army, began to operate. They consisted of three Russian divisions, a reserve brigade, an anti-tank brigade, an air force, an officer school, auxiliary units and small formations. By March 1945, the total strength of the KONR Armed Forces exceeded 150 thousand people. The first division was armed with 12 heavy and 42 light field howitzers, 6 heavy and 29 light infantry guns, 536 heavy and light machine guns, 20 flamethrowers, 10 Hetzer self-propelled guns, 9 T-34 tanks.

During the registration period, the Committee consisted of 50 members and 12 candidates (including representatives of 15 peoples of Russia) and practically performed the functions of a general meeting. The KONR included the Russian National Council (chaired by General V.F. Malyshkin); Ukrainian National Rada; National Council of the Peoples of the Caucasus; National Council of the Peoples of Turkestan, Main Directorate of Cossack Troops, Kalmyk National Committee and Belarusian National Rada.

Lokot Republic(Lokot self-government, Lokot district) is an administrative-territorial national entity in the workers’ village of Lokot on Soviet territory occupied by Nazi Germany during the Great Patriotic War. Existed from November 1941 to August 1943. The “republic” included several districts of the pre-war Oryol and Kursk regions. The size of the Lokot Republic exceeded the territory of Belgium, and its population was 581 thousand people. All power here belonged not to the German commandant's offices, but to local governments.

An attempt was made to create and legalize the Nazi Party and form an independent Russian government on the territory of the district. At the end of November 1941, the head of the Lokot self-government K.P. Voskoboinik published the Manifesto of the People's Socialist Party "Viking", which provided for the destruction of the communist and collective farm system, the provision of arable land and personal plots to peasants, the development of private initiative and the "merciless destruction of all Jews, former commissioners." The Jewish population of the Lokot “republic” was completely destroyed.

After Konstantin Voskoboynik was killed by partisans in January 1942, his place was taken by Bronislav Kaminsky, who developed the charter, program and structure of the party bodies of the “republic”. Since November 1943, after several renamings, the party began to be called the National Socialist Labor Party of Russia (NSTPR). The short name of the National Socialist Party is “Viking” (Vityaz). All leading employees of the local government were required to join the party.

The head of the “republic” Voskoboynik repeatedly spoke to the German administration with the initiative to extend such self-government to all occupied territories. The “Republic” had the status of a national entity and its own armed forces - the Russian Liberation People's Army (RONA). On its territory, the district had its own Criminal Procedure Code. Cases of mass desertion of partisans and their transition to the side of the armed formations of the Lokot self-government are described.

During the existence of the self-government, many industrial enterprises involved in the processing of agricultural products were restored and put into operation, churches were restored, 9 hospitals and 37 outpatient medical centers operated, 345 secondary schools and 3 orphanages operated, the city art and drama theater named after K. P. Voskoboynik in the city of Lokot. The local newspaper “Voice of the People” was also published here. S.I. Drobyazko, characterizing local self-government in the occupied territories of the RSFSR, wrote: “With minimal control from the German administration, Lokot self-government has achieved major successes in the socio-economic life of the district.”

Russian Liberation People's Army (RONA). This was the name of the collaborationist military formations created by B.V. Kaminsky on the territory of the Lokot Republic. RONA included 5 infantry regiments or 14 battalions with 20 thousand soldiers.

The army was equipped with guns, grenade launchers and machine guns. The creator and leader of RONA, a former volunteer of the Red Army and member of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, had the rank of SS Brigadefuhrer. RONA formations acted first against the partisans of the Bryansk region, and then took part in Operation Citadel on the Kursk Bulge, after which they were forced to leave the Lokot Republic along with approximately 50 thousand military and civilians. In 1944, RONA was renamed the 29th SS Grenadier Division, which, together with the Dirlewanger Brigade, took part in operations to suppress the partisan movement in Belarus, for which Kaminsky was awarded the Iron Cross, and then the first class badge “For the fight against partisans” ", Eastern Medal 1st and 2nd class. In March 1944, the unit was renamed the Kaminsky People's Brigade, and in July it joined the ranks of the SS under the name of the SS-RONA assault brigade. It was then that the brigade commander received the rank of Brigadefuehrer.

On August 1, 1944, when the Home Army launched an uprising in Warsaw, the Kaminski Brigade took an active part in suppressing it. The soldiers became involved in mass robberies and drunkenness, robbed warehouses and shops, raped women, and shot local residents. According to Polish researchers, 235 thousand Poles became victims of the Russians, of which 200 thousand were civilians. Executions in the courtyards of Warsaw streets continued for several weeks. Members of the RONA brigade also raped two German girls from the KDF organization.

The actions of the Kaminsky Brigade aroused the indignation of the Wehrmacht and veterans of the First World War. In response to the accusations, Kaminsky stated that his subordinates have the right to loot, since they lost all their property in Russia.

Being a pathological sadist, Bronislav Kaminsky distinguished himself so much in cruelty and looting that the Germans were forced to shoot him themselves, after which the remnants of his brigade joined the ROA and other Wehrmacht units.

Cossack Stan. In October 1942, a Cossack gathering was held in Novocherkassk, occupied by German troops, at which the headquarters of the Don Army, an organization of Cossack formations within the Wehrmacht, was elected. According to historian Oleg Budnitsky, “in the Cossack regions the Nazis received very significant support.” Professor Viktor Popov, a researcher of this problem, wrote: “It is now known for certain that a certain, and quite considerable, part of the Don population, the basis of which was the Cossacks, was very sympathetic and even sympathetic to the German troops.” The creation of the Cossack units was headed by the former colonel of the tsarist army S.V. Pavlov, who worked as an engineer at one of the factories in Novocherkassk. Cossack regiments and battalions were also formed in Crimea, Kherson, Kirovograd and other cities. Pavlov’s initiative was supported by the “white” general P.N. Krasnov. Only through Cossack units on the German side in the period from October 1941 to April 1945. About 80,000 people passed. By January 1943, 30 Cossack detachments with a total number of about 20,000 people had been formed. During the retreat of the Germans, the Cossacks covered the retreat and participated in the destruction of about a thousand villages and settlements. In May 1945, when they surrendered to English captivity, the number of Cossack units of the Wehrmacht numbered 24 thousand military and civilians.

The formations of the “Cossack Stan”, created in Kirovograd in November 1943 under the leadership of the “marching chieftain” S.V. Pavlov, were replenished with Cossacks from almost all of the South of Russia. Among the commanders of the Cossack military units, the most colorful figure was a participant in the Soviet-Finnish war, a major of the Red Army, awarded the Order of the Red Star, and also a Wehrmacht colonel, awarded the Iron Crosses of the 1st and 2nd class, Ivan Kononov. Having gone over to the side of the Wehrmacht in August 1941, Kononov announced his desire to form a volunteer Cossack regiment and take part in battles with it. Kononov's military unit was distinguished by its high combat effectiveness. At the beginning of 1942, as part of the 88th Wehrmacht Infantry Division, she took part in combat operations against partisans and paratroopers of the encircled corps of Major General P.A. Belov near Vyazma, Polotsk, Velikiye Luki, and in the Smolensk region. In December 1944, Kononov's regiment distinguished itself in the battle near Pitomach with units of the 57th Army of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, which suffered a heavy defeat.

On April 1, 1945, Kononov was promoted to major general of the “Vlasov” Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia and appointed marching ataman of all Cossack troops and commander of the 15th corps, but did not have time to take up his duties. After the death of S.V. Pavlov in June 1944, T.N. Domanov was appointed marching ataman of the Stan. Cossacks took an active part in the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944, when the Nazi command awarded many officers with the Order of the Iron Cross for their zeal. In July 1944, the Cossacks were transferred to northern Italy (Carnia) to fight against Italian anti-fascists. The newspaper “Cossack Land” was published here, many Italian towns were renamed into villages, and local residents were subject to partial deportation. On May 18, 1945, Stan capitulated to British troops, and later its commanders and soldiers were handed over to the Soviet command.

Eastern battalions and companies. With the growth of the partisan movement in the German rear, the Wehrmacht
took steps to increase the number of security units from the local population and prisoners of war. Already in June 1942, anti-partisan companies from among Russian volunteers appeared at division headquarters. After appropriate military training under the leadership of German officers, Russian units turned into full-fledged combat units, capable of performing a wide variety of tasks - from guarding facilities to conducting punitive expeditions in partisan areas. Jagdkommandos (fighter or hunting teams) were also created at the headquarters of German units and formations - small groups well equipped with automatic weapons that were used to search for and destroy partisan detachments. The most reliable and well-trained fighters were selected for these retreats. By the end of 1942, most of the German divisions operating on the Eastern Front had one, and sometimes two eastern companies, and the corps had a company or battalion. In addition, the command of the army rear areas had at its disposal several eastern battalions and Jagdkommandos, and the security divisions included eastern cavalry divisions and squadrons. According to the German command, by the summer of 1943, 78 eastern battalions, 1 regiment and 122 separate companies (security, fighter, utility, etc.) with a total number of 80 thousand people had been created.

Division "Russland"(1st Russian National Army, later - Green Special Purpose Army) - a military formation that operated as part of the Wehrmacht during the Great Patriotic War under the leadership of General B.A. Smyslovsky (Abwehr Sondeführer, operating under the pseudonym Arthur Holmston). The division was formed from units and groups of the Sonderstab "R". The division's strength was up to 10 thousand former White Guards. In February 1945, the 1st Russian National Division was renamed the "Green Special Purpose Army". On April 4, 1945, it increased by 6,000 people due to inclusion in the Russian Corps, in addition, they received about 2,500 members of the Association of Russian Military Unions. She was also joined by the heir to the Russian throne, Vladimir Kirillovich. At the end of the war, the remnants of the division ended up in Liechtenstein, from where most Russians emigrated to Argentina.

Russian Corps(Russian Security Corps, Russian Corps in Serbia, staffed mainly by white emigrants) was organized by Major General M.F. Skorodumov in 1941 after the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia. The corps was used to guard Yugoslav territory from Tito's communist partisans. In 1944, the Germans used the corps to cover their withdrawal from Greece. At this time, the corps took part in battles not only with Tito’s partisans, but also with regular units of the Red Army. Winter 1944–1945 was included in the ROA.

Combat Union of Russian Nationalists (BSRN) organized on the initiative of the SD in April 1942 in the prisoner of war camp in Suwalki. The BSRN was headed by the former chief of staff of the 229th Infantry Division, Lieutenant Colonel V.V. Gil. The 1st Russian National SS Detachment, also known as the “Druzhina,” was also formed from members of the BSRN. The tasks of these units included security service in the occupied territory and the fight against partisans. The 1st company of the BSRN consisted exclusively of former commanders of the Red Army. She was a reserve and was engaged in training personnel for new units.

Russian volunteers in the Luftwaffe. In the fall of 1943, on the initiative of Lieutenant Colonel Holters, a flying unit was formed from Russian volunteers ready to fight in the air on the side of Germany. In October of the same year, a special camp was created in Suwalki to select prisoners of war pilots, navigators, mechanics and radio operators. Those deemed fit were trained in two-month preparatory courses, after which they received a military rank, took an oath and were transferred to the Holters group stationed in Moritzfeld (East Prussia). At first, the flight and technical staff put the captured aircraft in order, but later Russian pilots were allowed to participate in hostilities. The group was engaged in aerial reconnaissance, dropping propaganda material and reconnaissance paratroopers into the Soviet rear. One of these squadrons operated against partisans in Belarus. Subsequently, the personnel of the Holters group entered the KONR Air Force.

Since March 1944, through the combined efforts of the Hitler Youth, the SS and the Luftwaffe, young people aged 15 to 20 were recruited into the German air defense auxiliary service in the occupied territories. The number of Russian volunteers, called “Luftwaffe assistants” (Luftwaffenhelfer), and from December 4, 1944, “SS trainees” (SS-Zögling), was determined at 1383 people. By the end of the war, 22.5 thousand Russian volunteers and 120 thousand prisoners of war served in the Luftwaffe, making up a significant percentage of the service personnel in anti-aircraft batteries and construction units.

It should be emphasized here that the personnel of these units were formed not only from prisoners. When talking among themselves, veterans often recall frequent cases of group betrayals, when soldiers, whispering, whole platoons, or even companies, crawled out of the trenches in order to surrender to the enemy in the darkness of the night. God will judge them: what is “command”, rather than treating soldiers as “cannon fodder”, isn’t captivity more salutary... But once captured, traitors became the most attractive contingent for the formation of Russian units.

Walter Schellenberg wrote in his memoirs: “Thousands of Russians were selected in prisoner-of-war camps, who, after training, were parachuted deep into Russian territory. Their main task, along with the transmission of current information, was the political disintegration of the population and sabotage. Other groups were intended to fight partisans, for which purpose they were sent as our agents to the Russian partisans. In order to achieve success as quickly as possible, we began to recruit volunteers from among Russian prisoners of war right in the front line.”

A little about the “new Russian police” and the institution of secret informants recruited by the fascists from Soviet collaborators. According to various estimates, the number of these structures amounted to about a third of all traitors, not counting the category of “voluntary assistants” (“hivi”, short for German Hilfswillige), that is, auxiliary personnel used on the front line. The Hiwis were recruited mainly from prisoners of war who simply wanted to survive, but were partially recruited on a voluntary basis. “Volunteer assistants” were used in rear services and combat units (as cartridge carriers, messengers and sappers). By the end of 1942, the Khivi made up a significant part of the German divisions operating on the Eastern Front. Over time, some “Khiwis”, initially enlisted in auxiliary work, were transferred to combat units, security teams and anti-partisan detachments. As losses during hostilities increase, the regular number of Hiwis reaches 15% of the total number of units. During the war, Russian soldiers dressed in Wehrmacht uniforms found themselves in all military theaters - from Norway to North Africa. By February 1945, the number of Hiwis was 600 thousand people in the ground forces, 50 thousand in the Luftwaffe and 15 thousand in the Kriegsmarine.

It is generally accepted that the Germans recruited policemen and informants from “ideological” opponents of the Soviet regime, that is, “avengers,” but this is a significant simplification of the real picture. Russian anti-Semites, criminals and all sorts of rabble willingly joined the police, that is, those who loved to rob, also former NKVD informers, prisoners of war who wanted to escape from concentration camps and were forcibly mobilized into the police under the fear of ending up in a concentration camp or being sent to work in Germany. There was a small layer of intellectuals. In other words, it was a very diverse audience. For many “policemen,” service in the occupation authorities was a means of survival and personal enrichment. In addition to special rations, policemen were exempt from taxes and received additional rewards for special “merits”, such as identifying and shooting Jews, partisans and underground fighters. For this, special rewards were awarded “for the eastern peoples.” However, the payment to policemen for “service” was very moderate - from 40 to 130 Reichsmarks.

A police force made up of collaborators, was divided into civil and military, respectively, in the area of ​​​​responsibility of the civil authorities and the military command. The latter had different names - “combat detachments of local residents” (Einwohnerkampfabteilungen, ESA), “order service” (Ordnungsdienst, Odi), “auxiliary security teams” (Hilfswachemannschaften, Hiwa), “Schuma” battalions (“Schutzmannschaft-Bataillone”). Their duties included combing forest areas in order to search for encirclement and partisans, as well as guarding important objects. Numerous security and anti-partisan formations created through the efforts of local Wehrmacht command authorities, as a rule, had neither a clear organizational structure nor a strict system of subordination and control on the part of the German administration. Their functions were to guard railway stations, bridges, highways, prisoner of war camps and other facilities, where they were called upon to replace German troops needed at the front. As of February 1943, the strength of these formations was estimated at 60-70 thousand people.

According to eyewitnesses, often the Slavic policemen even surpassed the Germans in cruelty. The most odious was the service of the Russians in the “secret field police” (“Geheim Feldpolitsay” (GFP). These detachments were motorized and had many machine guns for carrying out executions. GUF service officers arrested people on counterintelligence lists, caught Red Army soldiers, saboteurs and “saboteurs.” In addition, the "secret police" were chasing fugitives who did not want to be taken to work in the Reich. The punitive forces also burned villages along with residents who helped the partisans. To this we can add that in one of the occupied regions of Russia, out of every 10 burned villages, three were burned by partisans , and seven were Germans with the help of local collaborators. The list of victims of this group of domestic executioners is estimated to be at least 7 thousand people.

It is not customary to talk about this, but I argue that in parallel with the Second World War, there was also a Second Civil War, in which Russian fascists fought with Russian communists - horseradish is no sweeter than a radish... The number of victims of this terrible war will never be established, but it the consequences linger into the present day. What I mean? What I mean is that the imperial, xenophobic, anti-Semitic sentiments of Russians, dating back to the era of Ivan the Terrible, gave rise not only to the “big brother” complex, but to deeply hidden forces of disintegration of the country, which led during the war to mass betrayal, in 1991 to the collapse of the USSR, in our days - to the war in the Caucasus and the wave of terrorism sweeping Russia, and in the future - fraught with the danger of the collapse of the country.

I will not give here the entire list of our emigrants who collaborated with the Germans or with the Duce, but alas, on this list are Grand Duchess Romanova, the writer Shmelev, who came to a prayer service for the liberation of Crimea by the Germans, F. Stepun, S. Diaghilev, P. Struve , B. Savinkov, Prince N. Zhevakhov, General P. Bermond-Avalov, A. Kazem-Bek, A. Amphiteatrov, many other white emigrants... Dmitry Merezhkovsky, speaking on the radio, compared Mussolini with Dante, and Hitler with Jeanne Dark. And only emigrants? Lydia Osipova, author of “The Diary of a Collaborator,” wrote in her diary on June 22: “Thank God, the war has begun, and soon Soviet power will end.” And when the Germans entered the city of Pushkin, she wrote in capital letters: “IT IS FINISHED! THE GERMANS COME! FREEDOM, NO REDS." Are there rare cases when the occupiers were greeted with posters: “NO RED, FREEDOM!”? By the way, even before the start of the war, in the late 30s, in Omsk, for example, there was talk among opponents of collective farms about the imminent start of the war, and that the Japanese would come to Siberia. “They were expected as liberators,” writes the blogger.

In the world, everything is connected to everything: Russian collaborationism during World War II is determined by the policies of Bolshevism and deeply rooted Russian xenophobia and anti-Semitism. The current dangerous state of Russia - I am deeply convinced of this - is connected with the entire tragic history of the creation of an empire built on seas of human blood and the incalculable suffering of the peoples inhabiting it. The situation is aggravated by other factors - long-term “unnatural selection”, the fact that there are always more descendants of executioners than descendants of victims, and also the eternal ideological zombification and duping of the population.

It must be admitted that Nazism turned out to be more effective than Bolshevism in terms of propaganda: the Wehrmacht soldiers sincerely believed that Hitler’s policies met the interests of the German people and the aspirations of the vast majority of Germans. Therefore, soldiers and officers, at least at the beginning of the war, were ready to fight and die for the Fuhrer and for the Nazi regime. Russian soldiers were also taught to die “for their homeland, for Stalin,” but judging by the scale of collaboration and the horrific losses at the beginning of the war, faith in their homeland and Stalin was not much different from the religious beliefs of the Orthodox who destroyed their own churches after the Bolshevik putsch... Jürgen Holtmann testifies:

“For Stalin and the Bolsheviks, citizens of the USSR were dumb slaves; cattle, whose destiny is forced slave labor for pitiful handouts in the name of the hegemonic aspirations of the ruling elite and the most megalomaniac of all times and peoples - the “red emperor” Joseph Stalin. There were few people willing to fight and die for such a regime and such a leader. So they surrendered in tens and hundreds of thousands; and fled from the battlefield in divisions, and deserted en masse. And they went over to the side of the Wehrmacht (this is with such and such a racial ideology of the Germans).”

The Nazis placed special hope in spiritual collaboration. If the Soviet government considered the Church and clergy their enemies, the Nazis viewed them as their potential allies.

The history of "Orthodoxy in the service of Hitler" goes back not even to the beginning of the Patriotic War, but to the dawn of Soviet power, when the Elder of Athos, Fr. Aristoclius, before his death in Moscow, prophesied: “The salvation of Russia will come when the Germans take up arms.” And in June 1938, Metropolitan Anastasy, a representative of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, wrote a shameful kneeling letter of gratitude to Hitler in connection with the opening of the Berlin Cathedral Church, which contains the following lines: “Not only the German people remember you with ardent love and devotion before Throne of the Most High: the best people of all nations, who want peace and justice, see in you a leader in the world struggle for peace and truth. We know from reliable sources that the believing Russian people, groaning under the yoke of slavery and awaiting their liberator, constantly raise prayers to God so that He will preserve you, guide you and grant you His all-powerful help. Your feat for the German people and the greatness of the German Empire made you an example worthy of imitation and an example of how one should love one’s people and one’s homeland, how one should stand up for one’s national treasures and eternal values. For these latter too find their sanctification and perpetuation in our Church. You have built a house for the Heavenly Lord. May He send His blessing to the cause of your state building, to the creation of your people's empire. May God strengthen you and the German people in the fight against hostile forces who want the death of our people. May He grant you, your country, your Government and army health, prosperity and good haste in everything for many years to come” (“Church Life”, 1938, No. 5-6).

Everything would be fine if it all ended this way, but this is just where it all began. In June 1941, after Germany’s attack on the USSR, another Orthodox father, Archbishop Seraphim, addressed his flock with an Appeal, part of which I am forced to quote: “Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ! The punishing sword of Divine justice fell on the Soviet government, on its minions and like-minded people. The Christ-loving Leader of the German people called on his victorious army to a new struggle, to the struggle that we have long thirsted for - a sacred struggle against the atheists, executioners and rapists entrenched in the Moscow Kremlin... Truly, a new crusade has begun in the name of saving peoples from the power of the Antichrist ... Finally, our faith is justified!.. Therefore, as the First Hierarch of the Orthodox Church in Germany, I appeal to you. Be participants in the new struggle, for this struggle is also your struggle... “The salvation of all,” which Adolf Hitler spoke about in his address to the German people, is also your salvation - the fulfillment of your long-term aspirations and hopes. The final decisive battle has come. May the Lord bless the new feat of arms of all anti-Bolshevik fighters and give them victory and victory over their enemies. Amen!".

I hear our voices that here we are talking about the leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia - one, and about the revenge of the churchmen for the Bolshevik defeat of the Russian Orthodox Church - two. If only it were so! Because all this is nothing more than a prelude to the mass betrayal of the Orthodox clergy! Here you can cite dozens of church documents dated 1941-1943, in which the fathers of Russian Orthodoxy (Archimandrite John (Prince Shakhovskoy - “New Word”, No. 27 of June 29, 1941), Metropolitan Seraphim (Lukyanov) (“Church Life” , 1942, No. 1), All-Belarusian Church Council, Archbishop Philotheus (Narko), Bishop Afanasy (Martos), Bishop Stefan (Sevbo) (“Science and Religion”, 1988, No. 5), Metropolitan of Vilna and Lithuania Sergius (Voskresensky), Metropolitan Seraphim, Protopresbyter Kirill, Priest Apraksin, ROA chaplains (A. Kiselev, K. Zaits, I. Legky and many, many others) “practised” in praises to Hitler for the attack on the USSR: “The demonic cries of the Internationale have begun to disappear from the earth Russian", "It will be "Easter in the middle of summer"", "May the hour and day be blessed when the great glorious war with the Third International began. May the Almighty bless the great Leader", "The first in history All-Belarusian Orthodox Church Council in Minsk on behalf of the Orthodox Belarusians send you, Mr. Reich Chancellor, heartfelt gratitude for the liberation of Belarus from the Moscow-Bolshevik godless yoke,” “And there are no words, no feelings in which one could pour out well-deserved gratitude to the liberators and their Leader Adolf Hitler, who restored freedom of religion there, who returned to believers the temples of God taken away from them and returning them to human form,” etc., etc., etc.

It would seem that the last toast to Hitler revealed the reason for the betrayal of the representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church - the long-awaited liberation of the church from the Bolshevik yoke. But then what to do with the homeland, with the Orthodox Russian people being destroyed by the Nazis, with the total genocide of the compatriots of Jesus Christ?.. But - no way!

The most important thing here is not even the betrayal of the Orthodox hierarchs, but the massive transition of the Russian priesthood to the side of the enemy. In hundreds of Orthodox churches restored and opened by the Germans, Russian priests offered prayers for the victories of the invaders in cathedrals overcrowded with flocks. These are not my ideas - this is how the instructions of the church circular of June 1942, signed by Protopresbyter Kirill, were fulfilled - “Perform prayers for the Lord to grant strength and strength to the German army and its leader for the final victory...”

The Germans perfectly understood the role of the clergy, well financed the revived church and clergy, published the newspaper “Orthodox Christian” with a circulation of 30 thousand, and quickly converted the ministers of the Orthodox cult “to their faith.”

The German command used Russian priests in the occupied areas to collect intelligence information, as well as information about the mood of the population. In the North-West of Russia, the so-called “Orthodox Mission in the Liberated Regions of Russia” was formed. In her first address to believers, she called on everyone to “rejoice in your liberation.” In addition to conducting active propaganda and collecting information about the political and economic state of the regions, the Orthodox Mission, according to preliminary data, delivered into the hands of German counterintelligence agencies 144 partisans and Soviet patriots who were actively fighting against the Germans.

I am convinced that the sharp change in Stalin’s attitude towards the Russian Orthodox Church is largely due not to his “epiphany”, but to the blind copying of the carefully thought-out actions of the fascist command to “recruit” Orthodox “spiritual fathers”.

By the way, the betrayal of the Russian Orthodox Church during World War II was no exception to the rule. During the Horde period (XIV-XV centuries), the church actively collaborated with the enslavers, calling on parishioners to come to terms with the Tatar yoke and treat it as a well-deserved punishment from God. Still would! After all, the Horde not only freed the Russian Orthodox Church from any taxes, duties and burdens that were imposed on the rest of the population of the conquered country, but transferred huge land holdings (more than a third of all arable land in the country) to the management of the church. Rostov Bishop Tarasius brought the hordes of Khan Duden to Rus', who plundered and destroyed Vladimir, Suzdal, Moscow and a number of other Russian cities. The head of the church, Metropolitan Joseph, as well as the bishops of Ryazan and Rostov, Galicia and Przemysl fled, but the majority of the priests of the Russian Orthodox Church quickly adapted to the power of the Horde and called on the people to submit. For faithful service to the conquerors, the Orthodox clergy were given special labels (letters of grant) from the khans.

The Horde khans generously paid the Orthodox Church for its betrayals - for the fact that the church laid the spiritual sword of Orthodoxy at their feet, for the fact that the sermon of submission to the Mongol “king” and his “glorious army” sounded from the pulpits, for the fact that it rejected Churches, a people rebelled in despair, who were drowned in blood by the ferocious Mongol army. Historian N.M. Karamzin, characterizing the position of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Horde, wrote that for the sake of bribes the church was ready not only to faithfully cooperate with the foreign conqueror, but also to inspire the second “Mongol invasion.”

But as soon as the Horde wavered, completely different sermons began to sound from the pulpits: now the priests cursed the “filthy” who had enslaved the country. In other words, without batting an eyelid, the Russian Orthodox Church betrayed its yesterday’s patroness, the Horde, just as it had betrayed Russia before. Both betrayals were dictated solely by bribes - from now on the priests expected from the victorious Moscow that she would confirm to the “brothers” all her Horde “labels” and would defend the property of the church as zealously as the Horde defended them. And, oddly enough, she succeeded...

(Published in a magazine version. You can read it in full in